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Isn’t the point of being a millionaire the dream of retiring to do what you want with the rest of your life without the pressing concerns of financial stability?

In the US, the target retirement age is 65. Despite economic concerns over the last 3 years, recent statistics show many men and women are in fact able to retire slightly earlier, or by 64.6.

Most people would also agree that the US is the most powerful nation in the world economically. So, it might surprise you to find out that in many other countries, people are realizing their dreams of retirement much sooner than the average American.

According to data provided by Graphic.is in the chart below, there are a lot of early retirees in other countries who can afford to stop working and start clipping coupons more than 4 years sooner than their US counterparts. Aren’t we supposed to be the richest nation on Earth? What the heck is this country coming to?

A closer look at the countries offering early retirement reveals another story though. Most provide significant entitlement programs that provide pension payouts their citizens can afford to retire on, in return for much higher income taxes. It’s also worth noting that many rent versus owning their own homes. They also have government paid healthcare and use mass transportation instead of owning cars.

All things considered, Americans still have a pretty good deal. And you’ll notice some countries are conspicuously absent from the chart. Communist countries like China and Russia really enable only a select few of their citizens to retire at all. I’ll gladly work the 4 more years to live in America. I’m happy to visit the rest of those countries on vacation when I’m clipping my own coupons.